Pollution: cleaner coronas
Coronas form when a stream of gas passes between two electrodes maintained at different voltages. The potential difference causes energetic electrons to collide with the gas, producing a glowing plasm...
Birth of a black hole
The event is unusual in that the star appears to have been heavy enough – possibly 100 times the mass of the Sun – to collapse back on itself and form a black hole instead of completely bl...
Nations breach methodology of science tests
The TIMSS exercise tests students at the end of secondary school education in four subjects: general science, physics, mathematics, and advanced mathematics. But according to Rotberg, only 6 of the 16...
Quantum computers shape up
The two recent breakthroughs exploit the quantum properties of nuclear spins, which can point “up” or “down” relative to an applied electric or magnetic field. A team of physic...
India tests nuclear bombs
The British Gelogological Survey registered Monday’s hydrogen explosion at 4.7 on the Richter scale – similar to a light earthquake. But the failure of seismograph stations to register tod...
The biggest bang since the big bang
The 50 second burst, known as GRB971214, was detected by the two satellites. The Italian/Dutch BeppoSAX satellite gave the precise position of the blast, while NASA’s Compton Gamma Ray Observato...
Changes to PhysicsWeb
New features will be added to PhysicsWeb over the next few months to enhance the service offered to users.
Wanted: a bible for science
Future archaeologists who come across books from our era would, he says, find it difficult to tell the difference between ‘new age’ science books full of “junk science” or thos...
Nanotransistors at room temperature
The biggest challenge in making a single-molecule device is achieving electrical contact between individual molecules. Now new techniques that vaporize carbon to form nanotubes, and deposit material o...
Sampling micrometeorites at the South Pole
The middle of Antarctica is an ideal place to look for ‘survivors’ of the burn-up because material in the region suffer little, if any, chemical or physical weathering and there is very li...
